The Fellowship of Lifea Christian-based vegetarian group founded in 1973

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Literature

Why a Fellowship of Life?An address to the Annual General Meeting of the
Vegan Society, in 1984 by Margaret Lawson

Albert Einstein said, "A human being is part of the Whole, called
by us "Universe", a part limited in time and space.
He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something
separated from the rest, a kind of optical illusion of his
consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting
us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest
to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening
our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole
of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely,
but striving for such an achievement is in itself a part of liberation
and a foundation for inner security."

These words of Albert Einstein express well the aims and ideals of the Fellowship
of Life, which I founded in 1973, firstly to establish
vegetarianism as a Christian way of life and, secondly, to unite
believers of all religions or none in a way of life which neither
hurts nor destroys needlessly any part of creation, human, animal or
environmental. Always there is a tendency to limit compassion - some
condemn one particular cruelty whilst turning a blind eye to
others, and the majority refuse to face up to the cruelty inherent in
the production of fish, meat, eggs and cheese. The Christian Church,
which one would expect to be sensitive to the barbaric cruelty
inflicted on God's creatures, bears a heavy responsibility for its
lack of guidance down the ages, but I cannot condemn its ministers
because I believe they are the victims of past mistakes and the
falsifying of the true teachings of its Founder.

My parents were church-going folk and I was brought up to attend
regularly, but I was well over thirty years of age before I became a
fully-committed Christian - and literally a new person with a deep,
abiding faith, filled with love for God and Man. At first I became
very pacifist in my outlook and, though hitherto unable to say "Boo"
to a goose, actually challenged my congregation's investment in War
Loans and Defence Bonds.

I became interested in meditation and faith-healing, and one day I
found the phrase "Thou shalt not kill!" ringing in my heart and
suddenly it dawned upon me that it referred to animals as well as to
humans. I knew nothing of vegetarianism and veganism was an unknown
word to me, but after two weeks of inner wrestling I knew that I had
finished with eating meat. Eighteen months later I took the plunge to
veganism.

Looking back I could see how God had spoken to me as a child, but
being brought up in a shooting/fishing family I thought, in my
innocence, that I must be wrong. I remembered how I had wept at the
sight of the poor little limp body of a sparrow which my brother had
shot with his airgun. I remembered the cows contentedly chewing the
cud as we passed by to swim, and thinking how strange it was that
people reared them and then killed and ate them. I remembered too,
more recently, pheasant chicks which I had seen being reared to
provide so-called sport for so-called sportsmen, and the hare which
sat up on its haunches within feet of me one clear frosty night and
thinking, "You beautiful creature, how can they kill you?" A
pot of hare soup was considered a great delicacy in our household! And
I thought of the thousands of Christians who worship God each Sunday,
and then go home and tuck into their dinner of roast beef, chicken, or
what-have-you; even worse, who celebrate the birthday of the Prince of
Peace by feasting on the dead bodies of God's creatures. And I thought
of young children who are naturally averse to eating meat being forced
to do so by their misguided but well-meaning parents. How I admire
those youngsters who refuse to eat meat despite their parents'
efforts. And I thought of the Church, which had nothing to say, no
guidance to offer.

It was not long before I heard of other atrocities committed against
animals in vivisection laboratories, factory farms, circuses, the fur
trade... and it seemed to me that they all sprang from the original
one of killing animals for food.

All this time I was hoping that someone in the Church would do
something about the dreadful state of affairs, not feeling myself, a
humble fringe-member, to be the one for the job. But I was
disappointed and finally took the plunge and started campaigning
myself. With the decision, I heard of the Society of United Prayer
for Animals and almost at once became Honorary Secretary for
Scotland, a title I joyfully accepted as a weapon with which to tackle
the Church. At first I wrote to the elders of my congregation quoting
Robert Burns's words about Man's dominion breaking Nature's social
union, but gained no response. I then decided to campaign for
observance of the World Day of Prayer for Animals, and in this I was
helped by Mr Hollands of the Scottish Society for the Abolition of
Vivisection. The first year I sent letters to 80 presbytery
clerks in the Church of Scotland - and received one acknowledgement.
The next year I wrote individually to nearly 1,800 ministers. I got
one reply! I was so shocked that I buckled to and sent out a reminder
in time for the World Day and this time received over 200 replies,
which really did thrill me. Two years later I decided to spread my
wings, and formed the Churches Fellowship for the Promotion of
Reverence for All Life. A number of ministers from the Church of
Scotland became patrons, as did Dr Frey Ellis, the Dean of
Westminster, Lady Dowding, and others. The title seemed clumsy, so I
shortened it to the Fellowship of Life, which somehow
caused me to widen my vision to include all religions and to see the
link between all living things.

I decided to have no subscription so that no one would be too poor to
help, but to go forward in faith depending on donations. It is largely
a hand-to-mouth existence, and I do sometimes wish for a surplus so
that more could be done. My ambition was to produce a magazine on the
lines of World Forum,* but leaflets like the
illustrated Calling All Christians and a newsletter
round about Christmas seems even yet to be as much as I can do.

A symbol seemed essential and I worked out a simple one inspired by an
article in World Forum. It consists of a brown cross
super-imposed on a green tree, symbolising the spiritual and the
physical life - the sacrificial meaning of the cross must not be
forgotten - the sacrifice of ourselves.

Newsletters are sent out at Christmas, when I feel the degradation of
the Church is at its lowest, celebrating as it does the birth of its
Founder with the slaughter of millions of creatures. At first I was
naive enough to think I would take the Church by storm. I soon learned
differently! It is a long process removing the blinkers of thousands
of years, but despite times of doubt we pick ourselves up and plod on
hopefully. Always there is something to spur us on, a donation, a
letter of appreciation - we are never long left in doubt.

I suppose it was inevitable that I should come across the question as
to whether or not Jesus was a vegetarian. Personally, it never
occurred to me as I was so sure that "Thou shalt not Kill!" applied to
animals as well as to humans. My own reasoning when confronted with
the question was that Jesus would most certainly have lived up to the
highest ideals expressed in the Old Testament, as in Genesis,
1:29 - the first diet instructions in the Bible; as in
Isaiah, 11:9, "They shall not hurt nor destroy in
all My Holy Mountain" and, of course, "Thou shalt not kill!"
These all added up to make sense of vegetarianism as a Christian way
of life. However, I have since discovered several books on the
subject, among them, On Behalf of the Creatures by
the Reverend Todd Ferrier, who founded The Order of the Cross,
a vegetarian Christian Fellowship which is still in being today, and
also The Gospel of the Holy Twelve and various books
on the Essenes, a strict vegetarian sect to which it is believed that
Jesus belonged. It is believed that his humane teaching was edited out
of the Gospels.

From time to time the question is asked, "How is the
Fellowship getting on? Are there any results?" I have to
reply that beyond the support I receive I really have no idea. It is
an act of faith, sowing seeds and leaving the results in God's hands.
As Albert Schweitzer said, "Not one of us knows what effect his
life produces and what he gives to others; that is hidden and must
remain so, though we are often allowed to see some little fraction of
it so that we may not lose courage. The way in which power works is a
mystery." And someone else said, "The conscientious sower
must sow in faith even if he doubts whether the soil will yield a
harvest." How can you count all the circles made by a stone when
you toss it into the water?

What has been called the golden core of all religions is Love. This
Love, to be complete, must embrace all creation. Its debasing is sad
beyond words, even tragic and disastrous. In its restoration lies the
unity of all religions and all people of goodwill to the benefit of
humankind, the creatures and the environment.

Reprinted as a Fellowship of Life pamphlet

* World Forum was published in Bournmouth as
an independant vegetarian journal between 1947 - 1973.